16 January 2023
As Mark and I continue to chip away at the NZ Skeptical Calendar project, my search for fringe groups in the Papers Past database introduced me to Ānanda Mārga (The Path of Bliss or officially,Ānanda Mārga Pracāraka Saṃgha). The groups had an absolutely wild time in New Zealand and Australia throughout the 1970s before they disappeared from the archives, resurfacing intermittently when their humanitarian efforts were being promoted. Ānanda Mārga came to New Zealand in 1974 and soon there were groups in each major New Zealand city; they even operated a health food shop in Nelson.
7 March 2022
We don't often cover sports stories in our newsletter, and I'm certainly not one for writing them, but yesterday we heard the news of the untimely death of Shane Warne, the Australian Cricketer. Warne was only 52 and died of a heart attack.
13 December 2021
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.
13 December 2021
Our recent Skepticon saw Richard Saunders, from the Australian Skeptics, present the results of The Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project.
29 November 2021
If you've been reading the newsletter for any time you'll be aware of the joint conference we ran with the Australian Skeptics last weekend. I hope you had a chance to attend and to view the talks. If not, you can still purchase a ticket.
8 November 2021
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.
26 October 2021
If you're a regular reader of our weekly newsletter you'll know by now that we're running a conference in conjunction with the Australian Skeptics. Because of COVID-19 restrictions we made the decision to run it entirely online.
11 October 2021
We've been promoting the up-coming conference in conjunction with the Australian Skeptics for a few months now.
27 September 2021
As mentioned in the Mary Hobbs response above, there's now a group of doctors in NZ standing up for vaccinations, mostly it would seem in response to the handful of those who are against them.
30 August 2021
Finally this week, and related to the Streisand Effect above, comes the tale from David Farrier, of the popular Webworm blog.
19 July 2021
As I've written before, one of the main purveyors of vaccine misinformation is the anti-vax, conspiracy theory group Voices for Freedom. You will have seen their distinctive branding with their blue, teal and green signs and professionally printed placards.
5 July 2021
Did you know that NZ Skeptics is running an in-person conference again this year (after not running one last year because of COVID).
23 November 2020
This week Richard Saunders, from the Australian Skeptics pinged me online with a video of relevance to NZ Skeptics. Back in the 1990s Australian journalist Mike Willesee did a piece on a New Zealander Don Brooker who ran a colour therapy clinic in Cambridge, Waikato.
11 February 2018
An Australian woman, Shona Leigh, has publicly spoken about how she supposedly cured herself of cervical cancer with cannabis oil. This story seems to be popular in NZ because of the new Labour government's recent efforts to relax our laws on medicinal cannabis use.
17 April 2016
An Australian woman with a newborn has passed whooping cough onto her daughter, and now wishes she'd taken the vaccine she was offered:
13 December 2015
Australian Anti-vaccination activist's 11 week old daughter hospitalised for whooping cough, which kills 1 in 200 children who pick up the infection.
1 February 2013
Two of this issue's articles have a lot in common. Keith Garratt (p 7( and Michael Edmonds (p 13( both illustrate how individuals can make a difference through active skepticism, whether it be making a submission to a parliamentary select committee, or taking a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority. And Darcy Cowan, who writes the Scepticon blog, has scored a major coup by setting in motion a process which led to the Immunisation Awareness Society losing its charitable status (Newsfront, p 11).
1 February 2001
Bernard Howard reports from the Skeptics' World Convention, Sydney, 10-12 November 2000
1 November 1995
I'm pleased to report that after 10 years of waiting with bated breath, the New Zealand Skeptics now has its very own leaflet-cum-application form for handing out to the uninitiated. We've bemoaned the lack of these for some time -- particularly those of us doing public presentations where we've often been asked for further information, contact details and the like. It should make it considerably easier for prospective Skeptics to find out about us and join the ranks. Bernard Howard, our ever-faithful Secretary, tells me that he has been getting in application forms from the new material, and we anticipate seeing lots more.
1 August 1994
Late in his life, in answer to a question, Freud compared the human condition approximately to the contents of a baby's nappy. When I first heard this story, it seemed to mark a bitter old man. That was when I was in high school in the late 1950s. Higher education was spreading in the world's democracies. Ignorance and superstition, the plague of the human species since the caves, were on the way out. Reason, knowledge and tolerance would rule the future of the world. Or so it seemed. Does it look like that today, even to high school students? A few news items:
1 February 1992
by V. J. Hewitt & P. Lorie; Bloomsbury Press, 1991; $49.95
1 November 1991
by D R Selkirk & F J Burrows; NSW University Press, 1987; 158 pp
1 May 1991
By Graham Phillips. Pan, 1990. 168pp. $9.95 (paperback).
1 November 1988
We recently received through the kindness of skeptic Malcolm McCleary information on the thought of Barry Long. It comes from the "Barry Long Centre (NZ)" in Auckland. Mr. Long is an Australian who left his career in journalism and PR "when he started to question the purpose of his life. He was made aware that the truth or spirit was entering him and directing his life."